A major sentencing review, due to be published this week, will recommend judges tailor punishments depending on the specific criminal’s life and what will be most disruptive
Criminals face being slapped with travel, driving and football bans under plans to find more effective ways to punish people.
A major sentencing review, due to be published this week, will recommend judges use the sanctions more widely to disrupt people’s lives. Ministers will also be told to consider online restrictions such as social media bans for offenders.
Former Tory Justice Secretary David Gauke, who chaired the review, will recommend tailoring punishments depending on the specific criminal’s life and what will be most disruptive. He will encourage fines to be handed out more often but where effective, acknowledging that a wealthy football fan would feel the impact of a match ban more than a fine.
The review will recommend that judges should be able to impose football, travel or driving bans as a stand-alone punishment. At the moment, they are generally used in addition to sentences.
READ MORE: Inside prisons crisis as Keir Starmer told to ‘hold his nerve’ on unpopular decision
Such punishments could be handed out within a package of community measures, where necessary. For instance someone who has been out on the street drunk brawling could be subject to an alcohol monitoring tag and a football ban.
Football bans can currently be used when someone’s offence is connected to the sport. But the review will recommend that judges be able to use them for any lower-level offence, such as littering or non-violent theft or drug crimes, if it is an effective punishment.
The review hopes such changes could be used instead of giving offenders short prison sentences which are connected to higher reoffending rates.
Mr Gauke is also expected to recommend using technology like tagging to create virtual prisons outside the home to ease pressure on the prison system. The review has also been exploring a Texas-inspired jail model in which offenders are able to earn points to get time off their sentence for good behaviour.
Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood ordered a huge review of sentencing in October as she searches for solutions to deal with a deep-rooted prisons overcrowding crisis.
She has been forced to announce a series of short-term emergency measures since Labour was elected, including releasing thousands of prisoners early. Just last week she was forced to set out fresh urgent action that will see a group of inmates freed earlier to stop prisons hitting zero available jail space in Autumn.
Prison experts and campaigners – and many within government – have acknowledged prisons aren’t working to stop crime. Around 80% of crime is committed by someone who has offended before.
Mr Gauke told The Mirror : “For too long, there has been a misguided belief that the only effective means of punishment is time behind bars.”
He continued: “While for some offences prison will always be the answer, for some criminals losing the right to drive, travel, or attend football matches will be a far greater punishment. “We want to give courts the tools to deliver justice that fits the crime—and the criminal.”
READ MORE: Join our Mirror politics WhatsApp group to get the latest updates from Westminster